Rediff Logo Infotech Banner Ads Find/Feedback/Site Index
HOME | INFOTECH | HEADLINES
January 16, 1998

HEADLINES
JOBS
COM:PORT
POLICY POLICE
ARCHIVES

Email this story to a friend.

The Blunting Edge

A Singapore study claims India's rapidly
losing competitiveness in software export.

India may be losing its competitive edge in exporting computer software, claims a Singapore Federation of the Computer Industry report. And the threat, surprisingly, comes from Australia and Britain, it warns.

A financial newspaper from Singapore recently quoted the SFCI business climate study, taken up to highlight India as the number one threat to
T O D A Y
The Blunting Edge
Nashsoft-MS talks fail
Hope for cellular biz
VSNL cuts TAR
 
Singapore in several software fields.

Indian software exporters are still streets ahead of their nearest rivals but are beginning to get a run for their money from increasingly nifty operations based mainly in Australia and elsewhere, including Britain, claims the study. The view gains more relevance as India's big Y2K compliance business is fast nearing the deadline.

The SFCI 1997 study shows 47 per cent of the respondents as saying they consider India the number one threat in application software, 45 per cent in systems software and 38 per cent in consultancy and services.

Its nearest rivals are Australia in application software and consultancy services (19 and 32 per cent considered it their number one threat) and Britain in systems software (18 per cent saw it as the number one competitor).

In systems software, Indian competitiveness, as viewed by Singapore companies, has crashed from 64 per cent in 1995 to 49 per cent in 1996 to the current 45 per cent.

The story is repeated in other segments.

In application software, 77 per cent of the respondents in 1995 had identified India as their chief rival. This year it has slipped to just 47 per cent, first time in five years it has slipped to lower than 50.

Except in systems software, Australia is showing the most dramatic surge in industry perceptions of emerging threats. It grew from 11 per cent last year. This year, it is viewed by 19 per cent of respondents as the greatest competitive threat in application software.

The figures reveal that India may be in for a tight patch once the bulge in demand caused by the millennium bug problem is past.

Tell us what you think of this story

HOME | NEWS | BUSINESS | CRICKET | MOVIES | CHAT
INFOTECH | TRAVEL | LIFE/STYLE | FREEDOM | FEEDBACK